Forum:On Formatting
I propose a formatting guideline for dealing with proper names appearing in the Homeworld Saga: * This really goes without saying, but the names of persons, kiithid, and organizations should always be capitalized, as well as the adjectives derived from them. The noun 'kiith' is not capitalized unless used in conjunction with a kiith name. ** Examples: Karan Sjet; Kiith Somtaaw, the mining kiith; the Great Daiamid; a Taiidan research base. * Proper names of spaceships and their class designations: Always capitalized, with the Proper name in italics. ** Example: "This dummy paragraph is about the Revelation-Class Carrier Bushan-Re. I liked Revelations better when they were not green." ** Exceptions to this are things like the Mothership, which is not a true ship name or a true class designation. However, since it's used as a name to distinguish the Kushan or Hiigaran mothership from other mothership class vessels, it should be capitalized. The same goes for the Great Harbor Ship of Bentus. Arguably, you could however italicize Bentus. ** Size classes also don't count: frigate-class, capital-class, etc. are used to distinguish a ship by size, and are not names as such. * Proper names of significant historical events and eras should be capitalized. ** Examples: the Homeworld War, the Exodus, the Heresy Wars * Proper names of weapons and technology - can be capitalized? Please add input. In any case, if a weapon or technology is not explicitly named after what it does or is, (as ion cannons, mass drivers, mines, defense fields, gravity wells are), but instead given a more fancyful name (the Vaygr Battlecruiser's "Trinity Cannon", Hiigaran scout "Pea Shooter" mass drivers, Mimic fields, Sentinel fields,...), they should always be capitalized. RiesstiuIV 20:14, 2 June 2007 (UTC) (wasn't logged in the first time) * Looks reasonably. We could use what you have pointed here only... more proper would be Revelation-class instead of Revelation-Class, I think. About weapons and technology - it should be capitalized, as in games or manuals they are capitalized also. If you are willing, you could please, write that in Manual of style, and might be also to Naming policy. SkywalkerPL 09:49, 4 June 2007 (UTC) ** Added the revised version to that page. Left the original text in that article, feel free to delete if it seems redundant. RiesstiuIV 17:23, 28 July 2007 (UTC) ---- Secondly, I'd like to establish a general scheme of tenses in which the articles should be written. I'll outline the problems of this below: * In standard encyclopedic format, information about an entity's properties which are not changing is given in present tense. In the case of this wiki, this would refer to a spaceship's armament, or a weapon's capabilities, or a space system's properties. ** Example: "Plasma Bombs are anti-capital ship bombs found on Attack Bombers and Assault Frigates in the Kushan and Taiidan fleets, and later on Vaygr and Hiigaran Bombers." * When referring to historical facts, however, one needs to establish what the 'present' is from whose perspective we write. Since we are not in the game universe, this is a bit tricky: Do we write about the fleet composition of the Kushan fleet during the Homeworld War in present tense or past? Is the Homeworld 2 era in the past as well? Can we assume that in the "present" some aspects of continuity still apply, like the Hiigarans and Vaygr using ships from the Vaygr War? Or is everything happening in the past, in which case we'd also have to add "in the Homeworld 2 era and after, blah blah was bla bla." ? Long story short, where does the past end? RiesstiuIV 20:48, 2 June 2007 (UTC) ---- *Yea, what is sure now is that we have huge mess with tenses. I would go for writing all in past tense. Why? Ships, weapons, stations, bla bla bla were things where you can (~)always find a time in which they were not used, and therefore they were past things. For example Kushan interceptor: we have "The "Blade"-class interceptor, is often the first ship", when it should be in my opinion "The "Blade"-class interceptor, was often the first ship", cause from perspective of Homeworld 2 Era it was long not used starship. From perspective of Cataclysm era it can be "is", but from perspective of progenitor era it "will be". And therefore we can't pick up one time we refer to, or other for each ship, as it would provide more mess to articles then order. I thing past tense is most neutral one, not favouring any time, whatever ;) Good example of it you have on wookieepedia, check for example this article. :However I would write all articles in Real-world articles category in present tense, as they are about still existing things. Oh, and this also should go to Manual of style when we'll find some... common ground. SkywalkerPL 09:49, 4 June 2007 (UTC) ** Agreed, and I've already begun changing in-universe articles into past tense. RiesstiuIV 17:23, 28 July 2007 (UTC)